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This was the second successive year in which Collingwood and South Melbourne met in a premiership decider, with Collingwood having won the 1935 VFL Grand Final. South Melbourne had contested all of the previous four Grand Finals but had emerged victorious only once, winning the 1933 VFL Grand Final.

On the eve of the finals series star Collingwood full-forward Gordon Coventry was suspended for eight weeks for striking Richmond'sJoe Murdoch. As it was the first time Coventry had been reported in seventeen seasons of VFL football, there was surprise at the severity of the suspension. Coventry announced his retirement,[1] but returned, after much persuasion, for one more season.

Collingwood opened brilliantly with a goal to Knight one minute after the opening bounce. Todd added another and a flurry of misses followed. At this stage, Collingwood was dominating the play, but then Nash finally scored South Melbourne's first goal before Robertson kicked their second.[2]

Collingwood would continue to feature prominently in the finals, but would lose the next two Grand Finals, to Geelong and Carlton respectively. They would not be premiers again until 1953. Having participated in the last four Grand Finals, South Melbourne would not participate in another season decider until the infamous 1945 bloodbath, and would have to wait until 2005, by which time the club had become known as the Sydney Swans, to taste premiership success.